Friday, November 20, 2015

NaNoWriMo - Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Where the Rubber
Meets the Road

At
one of the last meetings of TOPS that I attended one of the other ladies was
totally discouraged. Each week she either lost or gained one quarter of a
pound. TOPS counts in quarter pound increments. Well, a quarter pound can be a
trip to the bathroom or a big drink, depending on which way the scale goes. No
wonder she was discouraged. She really was not losing weight, just a little
water back and forth.

Let’s
look at a day in the life of a loser. No, not that kind of loser, the kind that
puts knowledge to use through action and loses excess fat, builds muscle and ends
up with a trim, fit body. We will begin with breakfast.

Your
alarm goes off, and you roll out of bed. The first thing (after prayer if
that’s your first, first thing) is to visit the bathroom and pee. Then walk to
the kitchen and drink a full glass (at least eight ounces) or water. Next, if
you take any pills or supplements take them with another glass of water. All of
this water is to rehydrate you after a night of exhaling. Water gets your
digestive system up and running, provides lubrication for your brain and joints
and just generally helps you feel good all over.

Now,
you can either fix and eat breakfast at this point, or you can shower, get
dressed and then fix breakfast. It is up to you the order of things, but
breakfast is a must. The reason some people do not eat breakfast is they claim
they are not hungry. What time did you eat before sleep? If it was after seven
o’clock in the evening, you are eating too late and yes, you probably won’t be
hungry in the morning. But if you stop eating at seven, by the time you get up
ten to twelve hours later, you probably will be hungry.

What
do you normally eat for breakfast? (When you eat it, of course.) Cold cereal?
Hot cereal? Bacon and eggs? Pancakes, waffles, muffins, bagels? Whatever your
normal breakfast is you can most likely keep eating it. We will just tweak it a
little and use proper portions to make the most of the first meal of the day.

Read
the label on your cold cereal, if one of the first ingredients is sugar, put
that cereal aside and use it as a treat. Cereal should be made with whole
grains, little to no sugar (and we won’t be adding any) and have lots of good
fiber. Next read the portion size. Get out your measuring cups and only eat one
serving size with the usually recommended one half cup of milk. Add a piece of
fruit, either with the cereal, or on the side, and a nice boiled egg for
protein and you will have a great breakfast.

Hot
cereal is similar. Use the old fashioned cooking kind; it really takes just a
few minutes to prepare and cook and it is easy to control the ingredients.
Measure the portion, add a tablespoon of dried fruit, or chopped fresh apple, a
teaspoon of brown sugar or honey and you have a nutritious, filling breakfast.
I eat oats, cracked wheat, creamy brown rice, and regular brown rice for
breakfast. All yummy. And for goodness sakes, do not call it “mush.” How
unappealing can you get. This is hot cereal. Mush is what is in the gutters at
the end of winter.

If
your normal breakfast (or one that you eat at restaurants) consists of bacon,
eggs, and toast simply cut your portions in half, unless you already eat only
one of each thing. Many people don’t, so I just wanted to remind you. One egg,
one strip of bacon (or sausage patty, link or small piece of ham) and one piece
of toast, without butter or whatever spread you use, but with a little bit
(measure a tablespoonful) of jam or jelly or honey. Again, add a piece of fruit
and you’ve got a great breakfast. Remember, there is nothing we are totally
cutting out, just cutting down to begin with. It is a starting place. We have
to eat fewer calories than we use during the day, so unless we are a long
distance runners we must cut in half the amount of calorie dense foods we eat.

Most
restaurants are amenable to adjusting their servings. I was at a diner in Utah
where the smallest plate was two of each thing, bacon, eggs, and toast. I asked
if I could have a plate with just one of each. Of course, the waitress said.
She served our breakfasts and it was just the right amount, no waste, and
easier for my waist. You won’t know until you ask. The alternatives are eating
more and expanding your waistline; leaving half on the plate to be thrown away,
wasting food and money; or taking home a “doggy-bag” for later, which never
tastes as good heated the second time. So just ask and go with the smaller
portions.

Perhaps
you think you do not have time for pancakes, especially homemade ones. Well,
the other morning I got up and was in the kitchen at about 18 minutes after the
hour and had homemade, from scratch, pancakes and syrup on the table at 32
minutes after the hour. Beat that! Practice makes it easy to do. Having a jug
of homemade syrup already in the fridge helps too. I just put some in a pan, on
low to heat while I am whipping up the pancakes. Everything is ready at once.

Here
are the recipes I use for the syrup and pancakes.

Homemade Syrup

Ratio
= 2 parts sugar to 1 part water

To
make a large quantity:

4
cups sugar

2
cups water

1
– 2 tablespoons molasses (more or less depending on how dark you like it)

Bring
to a boil, stirring occasionally. When
just beginning to boil, turn off heat and remove pan, stir well, then serve.
Store the remainder in a container (glass or plastic) in the fridge and just
heat what you need each time. (I tried storing it in a squeeze bottle in the
cupboard, but eventually it got moldy, so the next batch went back in the
fridge. We like our syrup hot anyway.)

Whole Wheat Pancakes

1
cup whole wheat flour

1
tablespoon sugar

2
teaspoons baking powder

¼
teaspoon salt

Mix
dry ingredients then add:

1
egg, beaten

2
tablespoons oil

1
cup milk (you can use dry milk here, add the powdered milk, the amount to make
one cup, to the dry ingredients, and then add one cup of water with the wet
ingredients.)

Mix
all together and pour or ladle onto hot griddle (325° - 350°), turning when the
bubbles closed and the edges are done.

Recipe
can be doubled, tripled or “fourpled” (a family term)

I
mix it all up in an eight cup measuring pitcher and simply pour the batter onto
the griddle from the pitcher.

If
you want to save time in the morning prepare the ingredients the night before.
Mix up the dry stuff and cover; mix up the wet stuff and put it in an air tight
container in the fridge. In the morning, start the syrup heating, turn on the
griddle and mix the batter. Instant pancakes for breakfast. Add some fruit and
you have a wonderful breakfast. Just remember to limit your portions, three or
four 2 ½ inch pancakes with 1 tablespoon of syrup and you will be good to go.

Waffles
take longer to cook so we do not have those on work/school mornings, but they
make a good choice on weekends or holidays. I use the same pancake recipe for
the waffles.

If whole wheat is too much for you, try half
and half. Half whole wheat flour and half white flour. Whole wheat, especially
if you have ground it fresh yourself, (ask a Mormon friend about it) is the
best nutritionally. But the kind you buy at the store works too. My husband did
not like pancakes until he tasted my whole wheat ones. Our children too have
become partial to the whole wheat pancakes and consider the doughy store bought
mix ones often served at fund raiser breakfasts or church events, to be totally
nasty. It is all a matter of what you are used to.

Store
bought muffins have too much sugar in them and taste more like cake, plus they
are usually huge, enough for four servings. Try these homemade ones for a
better option.

Oatmeal
Raisin Muffins

Mix
together in bowl:

2
cups flour (half whole wheat and half white)

¾
cup rolled oats

1/3
cup sugar

2
teaspoons baking powder

¼
teaspoon salt

½
teaspoon cinnamon

½
teaspoon nutmeg

½
teaspoon cloves

Add:

2/3
cup raisins (stir in to coat with flour)

Add:

1
slightly beaten egg

1
cup milk (same thing as the pancakes, you can use dry milk and water)

Just
like the pancakes these can be mixed (dry and wet separate) the night before, prepare
the pan and then fix in the morning. Turn on the oven to preheat while you mix
them up and spoon them into the pan. Voila. Fresh, hot muffins. These with some
scrambled eggs and some fruit make a great breakfast.

I
have been serving bagels to my family for years. They are filling and that is
good for growing boys with hollow legs. However, recently I read that bagels
are nutritionally empty calories and therefore should have a limited place in
our meals. Okay then. Instead of a whole bagel, let’s just eat a half, share
the other half with another family member, with just a skim of cream cheese on
it (instead of a quarter inch thick spread) and we will be okay. It is all
about portion size, remember?

English
muffins are a good alternative to toast with a meal, or use them for breakfast
sandwiches. Toast the muffin, add a thin slice of cheese, half a slice of
bacon, and part of an egg; the egg is beaten and cooked thin in an omelet pan.
I can get three or four portions out of one egg this way.

Speaking
of eggs, when fixing scrambled eggs I plan on one egg per person, with an extra
one thrown in for good measure. So if I am feeding my whole family of seven, I
use just eight eggs. One blogger I read says she rarely serves scrambled eggs
to her family of nine because it takes eighteen eggs to feed them. What? All of
the children are under 12. That’s way too many eggs. She could get by with
under a dozen. Or rather I could.

Another
egg saving breakfast is French Toast.

Mom’s
Café Recipe for French Toast

Beat
together:

4
large eggs

1
cup milk

Dip
slices of white bread in mixture and cook on a medium-hot (325) griddle greased
with butter. Turn slices and brown other
side.

Makes
about 14-16 slices depending on the size and kind of bread.

For
making larger or smaller batches the ratio is ¼ cup milk to 1 egg.

If
you want to make it special, add ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract and ¼ teaspoon
cinnamon.

For
warm weather breakfasts I like homemade granola with either milk or yogurt.
Here is my simple recipe.

6
cups rolled oats (old-fashioned oatmeal)

½
cup honey (or maple syrup, but who has that?)

1/3
cup canola oil

2
tablespoons orange juice (the kind from concentrate, unless you have an orange
tree and want to squeeze some fresh)

1
cup chopped walnuts or other favorite such as almond, pecan, sunflower, etc.

Preheat
oven to 325° F.

Combine
the honey, oil and juice in a saucepan; heat until just warm.

In
a large bowl combine the oats and nuts, then pour wet mixture over the oats and
stir until well combined. Spread the mixture evenly in a shallow roasting or
baking pan. Bake for about 20 – 30 minutes, stirring and re-spreading every 10
minutes until a pretty golden brown. Cool completely before storing in an
airtight container.

Dried
fruits such as raisins, craisins, or berries can be added (one cup) after it is
cooled. Portion size is one third cup. (Or a half cup, if you are a teenage boy
with hollow legs.) At one third cup this has 235 calories per serving. I can almost
guarantee that it is filling and you won’t get hungry soon after eating.

Have
you ever heard of Breakfast Salad? No? It is quite popular at our house. I
think our son Joseph put the first one together. Take some leftover boiled
potatoes from dinner the night before, peel and cut them into bite sized
pieces, and set aside. Chop up a little bit of onion, and some bell pepper (any
color, the more the merrier) and set them aside with the potatoes. Take some
bulk sausage, not more than half a pound for six people and cook it until it is
no longer pink, add the potatoes, onions and peppers to fry. In another skillet
(or small omelet pan) scramble a couple of eggs. When they are done, the other
should be done and you can add it all together. Voila! Breakfast salad. Hearty,
and filling for teenage boys. For yourself, go ahead and eat some, just limit
your portion to about one cup worth.
See, you can have everything as long as you measure the portion.

Whew.
I think we are done with breakfast. Oh, one more thing. How about a humorous
anecdote? This summer our youngest son went on a little trip with some other
youth and leaders from our church. In the morning the leaders quickly figured
out that the hotel no longer served breakfast, so one of them went out to buy
some food. When our son was presented with donuts and Sunny D he said, as
politely as he could, “I don’t eat fake food.” When questioned about his
preferences for breakfast he said, “My mom fixes me a hot breakfast every
morning.” The women leaders were in awe. I promise, with practice it takes just
a few minutes to serve a hot, nutritious breakfast to yourself and others.